


The Orc Wood

by gracca_amorosa



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-12 05:51:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16867306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gracca_amorosa/pseuds/gracca_amorosa
Summary: She knew something about keeping quiet in the woods, but she was not sure if it would be enough this time.





	The Orc Wood

She knew something about keeping quiet in the woods, but she was not sure if it would be enough this time. A thief, that’s all she was, a petty thief who needed some coin to support herself – if she was not mincing words, to buy enough food that she didn’t starve and have enough for the cheapest bed in the cheapest inn that she could find. But for some reason they had sent an entire armed guard after her and her handful of stolen gold. She had prior arrests, more than a few, was that the reason? They finally wanted her off the streets for good? It didn’t matter – she needed to stop speculating and get deeper into the forest.

She could hear their heavy footsteps behind her, not bothering to hide themselves, and she knew this would be her saving grace. She could hide her own noises under theirs, but their great din would attract another quarry.

They were in the Orc Wood.

She clambered as quietly as she could over a massive fallen trunk and slid to the ground on the other side, rolling so she was under the curve and as out of sight as she could make herself. In the far distance, ahead of her, she heard another large mass making its way towards her, and she knew it would inevitably meet the guards pursuing her. What she didn’t expect was the orc that came out of the woods like a flash, hurtling himself under the tree right next to where she was.

The only thing that kept her from screaming was the fear of being caught by the guards. That, and this orc’s gentle eyes.

He held up a finger to his lips, Don’t speak, just hide. And she had just enough wherewithal to stay silent as he asked. 

Behind them the guardsmen could be heard, slowly and clumsily making their way over the fallen tree, and dropping one by one to the other side. None of them looked behind themselves and she could not help but roll her eyes at their basic incompetence. The orc smiled when he saw her, and his face was handsome. She trusted him. At least, she trusted that he wouldn’t kill her. At least, not today.

He shifted around and she saw him holding a pole-axe close to his body, one that was longer than she was tall, with a wicked dagger at the top. Before she could contemplate what he might do against five well-armored opponents, the job was already half done – he came out from his hiding spot at top speed, slashing and stabbing, and by the time she had rolled herself out from under the log he was done.

With a courteous bow he turned to her, putting the pole-axe head down into the dirt to show he meant no harm.

He turned to leave but before he did he said, “You’re quiet. We could use someone like you. Orcs aren’t what you would call stealthy.” A sly smile and a gentle incline of his head let her know he was telling the truth.

“You’re very handsome,” she blurted out before she could stop herself. He gave a hearty laugh and turned to go – and she followed along.

When she arrived in his village it was not an unkind welcome, but it was a strange one. She was not the only non-Orc here in the Orc Wood, but there were still very few of them. There was an elf standing in a group of burly orcs in armor, laughing at something one of them said, and a dwarf working naturally at a blacksmith’s anvil, braided beard lit up in the light of the forge. Scattered about were a few more humans and a few more elves, and slowly they had all turned to look at the new arrival. Her escort walked confidently into the village but she could not quite make herself follow. Her escort turned before he got too far and went back for her, linking his burly arm with hers and walking close with her through the main street.

She tried desperately not to smile but when he looked down at her with a grin of his own she felt herself blush.

He flung open the double front doors of what she assumed by structure and décor was the leader’s hut and introduced her to the Chief as their new quiet girl, their new sneak-thief. She was thrust suddenly into a round of celebration: toasting, roaring, chest thumping celebration.

In the heat of the moment she flung herself into her rescuer’s arms, clutching him tightly and whispering, thank you, thank you close to his ear. He laughed, not unkindly, and hoisted her up into the air – she clung to him but already trusted him to keep her safe. She did not know what it was about him, about his rescue, but even though she had never counted many people as “friends” before, she felt that he was worth the title.

He sat her down, flush and euphoric. For the first time she could remember, she was part of something bigger than just herself, her thievery. She had a role in this place and the chief was already giving her instructions. He told her what her job was to be. The idea of being linked to something bigger than herself made her heart beat faster – even if the thing she was involved in was more thievery, it was thievery with friends, thievery with a purpose, thievery that would actually keep her alive and not in some halfway state of almost-starvation.

Seeing the light dance in her eyes made her orc protector’s own heart beat fast. Without thinking he held her close and kissed her deeply, overcome with some feeling that he could not quite place, and accompanied by the loud whooping of his comrades. She was a little confused by the tusks at first but figured out how to work around them soon enough and clung to him like her life depended on it.

The two of them wend home together that night, stumbling drunk and happy to the cabin that had been assigned to her, and she kept kissing this savior of an orc, testing out her new ability to kiss around his strange (but getting less strange by the moment) tusks. Slowly he stripped off her clothes, and she took off his, and they pressed themselves closer and closer together until they were one person.

Maybe her life did depend on him, she thought. Maybe her future did too.


End file.
